Spilled 70% alcohol on Thinkpad T410

Quick story: I was cleaning my desktop keyboard out with some alcohol and spilled some on my thinkpad keyboard. It wasn't a lot, just enough to cover about 6 keys.

I turned off the thinkpad and removed the battery. I've never handled a spill before so I wasn't sure what to do. It's been about an hour and when I try to turn the laptop back on (with battery), I get a post screen and two beeps before it shuts down again.

Any advice?

 

Anything on the post screen that's readable, like an error message? http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-74890 says that two beeps and no screen is either the system board or the DIMMs, (RAM) otherwise it should be accompanied by a numerical error message.

I would take off the keyboard and see what damage has been done. Give it a day or more to dry out, which you should have really done before turning it back on. How much spilled? ThinkPad T410 has a spill resistant keyboard that handles very small spills, but any more than that will flood the draining system and go into the system board.

 

As I said, it's a small spill but I didn't see anything come out of the drainage. Maybe it was too viscous. I'm taking the keyboard off atm.

 

Don't try turning it on for at least a day as mentioned.

 

I did open it up and looked around. It doesn't seems like anything was affected at all except for the ultrabay which had some alcohol on its casing.

I'll wait it out until tomorrow and see what happens.

 

The thing is it only takes a small amount on the wrong part of the board, so just leave the keyboard out and let it dry completely. Your chances are better as it was alcohol and not something like tap water, which leaves traces of metal behind.

 

After reading through the beep symptoms, I think that the post screen hasn't finished beeping. For example: Beeeeeeep. Beee--. Shutdown.. So it could be possible that there are more beeps.

Hmm. It's not really the post screen that I see, it's the bios splash screen (where the giant Thinkpad logo takes up the screen for a second).

 

I thought the whole point of Thinkpads was the spill resistant keyboards? A minor spill with 70% alcohol that covers 6 keys can kill it?

I've had other laptops without spill resistant keyboards do better than that on like half a glass of water.

Me thinks the vaunted durability and ruggedness of Thinkpads is mostly hype.

 

its going to be hard to troubleshoot without the actual laptop. i think you have to send it for repair.

i spilled on my dell once and it was water which is worse, blowdried it and waited 3 days and it worked

 

See the difference? It's too bad very few people (excluding me sometimes) have the knowledge/patience to wait days after a spill before trying to run the unit again. But you did say it was your first time handling a spill so I can't blame you since I did the same with my phone. Good luck OP.

 

Sigh. I don't suppose you tried tilting the computer to get the liquid out, did you? That's a bad idea.

 

take the ram out and start the laptop without the ram in it, does it beep?

 

I tilted it forward to raise the rear so that I could pull out the battery. I'm assuming that the liquid went from the center of the keyboard down under the touch pad.

I just tried pulling out the palm rest but it seems to be stuck on the right side of the palm rest just above where the Thinkpad logo should be. Should I pull harder or is there something there that I need to pull out first?

Currently trying to see if any alcohol is lingering under the touchpad since I didn't see any alcohol come out of the holes. I only got about half of the alcohol out with some q-tips and microfiber cloth.

Tried it but it didn't start at all. I thought that computers can't run without RAM?

 

they don't but you want to know whether it is still beeping.

what exact liquid did you spill which contains the 70% alcohol content?

 

Isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Standard stuff from CVS.

 

hum, they should able to evaporate if you use a hairdryer on medium heat.

 

If its rubbing alcohol, it wont damage any electronic components as long as you dont turn it on for a full day or two. You'll be fine. These things are used to clean off thermal paste all the time in electronic components.

 

Can you still smell rubbing alcohol? That stuff smells pretty potent, and if its all gone and dry you shouldn't be able to smell it right..? (Don't go getting yourself high/drunk off of this >.>)

 

I've read something similar to this before on the forums and the safest bet thing to do is not turn on your pc for a full week. I know it'll be a pain to wait that long but better than a dead pc.

 

So I turned it on today. Same symptoms but it won't turn on with the battery at all. It requires the AC to be plugged in but it still shuts down too quickly. I've had one successful boot without the HDD.

I think this is out of my hands now. Should I just call it in for repair (under warranty)?

 

Is it covered for accidental damage, a.k.a. ThinkPad Protection? Otherwise you will most likely be charged for a replacement systemboard. If it was mine I would wait a little longer. As for the palmrest unscrew and remove all the screws, gently pull up from the inside, on the edge near the keyboard. On a T400 a USB symbol is there, maybe the same? It will need some force, if it is bending than don't continue pulling.

Once you get it off blowdry everything for a few minutes on medium heat as suggested, and let the open air take care of the rest, at least overnight I would say. If that doesn't do it than your only option is to send it in for repair.

 

I'm not sure anyone would detect a alcohol spill as the cause of this failure if the machine were sent in for repair.

I'm also surprised the machine is hosed. I'd be willing to bet if it had been left alone until now, it would not have suffered damage.

Another horror story and lesson learned for me.

 

Updates

So I took everything apart last night and did the blow drying as said. I let it dry out all night and tried again just now. Everything booted now except that there's a consistent beeping (many small beeps) while I use it. Battery is functioning again

Keyboard seems dead except for the power button. Odd. I don't have a USB keyboard on me so I'll test it again tomorrow when I go pick one up from a friend.

I'll update the status of the Thinkpad again tomorrow to let you guys know how it's doing.

Edit:

I also have a custom BIOS splash screen that shows my name each time it boots. Would that void the warranty?

 

my friend said that he has a similar experience, alcohol has better ability to penetrate the keyboard membrane and would short circuit the keyboard electronics. They are harder to evaporate from the keyboard, since some residues would remain within the membrane.

The beeping can be turned off in the bios, and it can be related the keyboard issue.

Do the pc doctor test on everything, especially the keyboard and see what happens (maybe all you need is a new keyboard).

Lenovo Support - PC Doctor for DOS bootable CD - ThinkPad T410, T410i, T410s, T410si, T510, T510i, W510, W701, W701ds, X201, X201i, X201s, X201 Tablet

P.S. yes custom bios may void your warranty, if the depot technician should choose to care about such minor details during warranty repair.

 

OT: But where did you get it? I am looking for something that looks like the original, but has the ability for me to add my details.

 

Iam truly not understanding how alcohol would have killed your machine... At 70percent it should have all dissolved a just a few minutes... Unless it was literally drowned in IPA.

 

I wrote my own tutorial for it. The custom splash screen uses utilities directly from Lenovo's website so I doubt that it'll void my warranty.

It's also very little.

I tried again and I'm coming to the conclusion that only the keyboard is dead. Since the power button is the only key that actually works, I'm guessing that it's actually partially broken as well and shuts itself down in ten seconds. Otherwise, my battery wouldn't be working.

I'm going to call it in now since it is on warranty.

 

I doubt your hte only one Neego, but without them knowing any better they oculdn't know to wait a few days to turn it back on either...

 

Thanks for the nice tut, but I figured it out. The hardest part was choosing an image. Mine looks a lot like the original.

forum.thinkpads.com • View topic - Custom BIOS Boot-Splash [/url]

-------

That's probably the best thing to do, calling it in I mean. They might even send out a keyboard if you ask specifically, so you don't need to be without your computer for a while. Parts shipping for me took the weekend. I called Friday afternoon and they attempted delivery Monday. (wasn't home) Pretty impressive. I'm not familiar with how long the depot service takes.

 

Just some quick opinions:

Immediately disconnect power + all batteries out, of course.

...spilled 70% alcohol > what's the rest 30% made of...

Some general spill tips:
-pure- alcohol will evaporate quite quickly (even from recesses), use a hair dryer if needed to speed it up.

Alcohol-mix with water will leave the water behind, much longer dry time but recoverable.

Coffee\tee + milk\sugar (or soup etc): needs a full clean before it starts to turn to glue, can be saved, see below.

Saltwater... basically it's goodbye, but a serious rinse ( quick before circuits are eroded) with running hot water, then dry, then a wash in pure alcohol then a loooong dry (hairdryer for some hours without melting anything), could save it with some luck. Repeat if in any doubt.

Biggest mistake (worse than the spill itself) is to loose patience & power up too early 'just to see if, or hoping that, it will work'.

 

Ugh. So I sent it in with ezserv and just got it back today. Everything works fine except that there's two symmetrical scratches or dull marks on the bottom of my LCD.

Tried wiping it down with some damn microfiber; it's still there. It's not noticeable while powered on but it does irk me. Should I call this in too?

 

If it bothers you and you don't mind living without your laptop for a little while, than I would say yes. Personally I would.

 

I'm travelling on Tuesday and I need my laptop with me so I definitely can't return it now. Does Lenovo ship over LCD screens?

Edit: I don't mind taking it apart and putting it back together myself.

 

I don't think so. Although swapping the entire lid assembly isn't that hard, it wouldn't be considered an end user task. They would certainly want a warranty service tech to do it.

I would have Lenovo make the swap. I would call in the issue right now and take care of it when you get back.

 

These scratches would usually need to be resolved through the customer satisfaction officer, whom would have need to get some background on the system's condition when it was sent into the depot.

Then they would have to make a judgement call on whether it is a user induced damage, a damage that occurred during shipping, or something that the depot caused.

Most likely this would take 2 weeks to resolve and after they get approval of the repair or is satisfied that it was not done by you, can they approve the repair either billable to the depot or the courier company, etc.